The Bears are reeling after giving away a game in Carolina last week, falling 31-24 and dropping to 2-3. Now comes the team’s fourth road game in five weeks, a Sunday afternoon date with the Falcons at the Georgia Dome. With that in mind, we asked Knox Bardeen, who covers the Falcons for Fox Sports South, for his candid personal scouting report. Here are four things you need to know about the Falcons before Sunday’s kickoff.

1. At full strength, Julio Jones continues to be one of the most dominant big-play receivers in the league.

Through five games, Jones has an NFL-high 40 catches and a league-best 552 receiving yards to go along with three touchdowns. He’s making the most of his opportunities and benefitting in an offense where fellow receivers Roddy White and Devin Hester command their share of attention. So while all the media spotlight this week in Chicago has focused in on Hester and his first game against his former team, the Bears are certainly devoting their attention at Halas Hall toward finding ways to limit Jones.

“Julio is such a physical freak,” Bardeen said. “Very little body fat, strong, in perfect shape. But on top of all that, what he has in an ability to do things with his body that no one else on the field can. It’s not just strength. It’s reaction time. It’s an ability to adjust and make things happen in a split second.”

Bardeen points to the acrobatic catch Jones had Sunday against the Giants on a Matt Ryan pass way out in front of him. One hand, 9 yards, first down. You can’t teach that.

Now comes questions on whether Jones can stay healthy through December after having his 2011 season cut short by a hamstring injury and his 2013 campaign cut short after five games due to a foot injury.

2. The Falcons’ defense has been shaky all season and should afford the Bears’ offense an opportunity to get healthy.

The Falcons are one of only five teams allowing more than 400 yards per game this season. Atlanta ranks 28thagainst the run (147.6 yards per game) and they’re not creating pressure with their defensive line against the pass either (four sacks).

O'Donnell is only a rookie after all. And even though he, like Hester, played his college ball at Miami, what he knows about the legendary return specialist comes mostly from watching highlights.

"He's an explosive player," O'Donnell...

It’s a vulnerable unit, as the Vikings showed two weeks ago, racking up 558 total yards in a 41-28 win. And that was without Adrian Peterson and with rookie quarterback Teddy Bridgewater making his first career start. Atlanta fared better but still not great against the Giants, registering just one sack and allowing 20 points in the final 18 minutes of last week’s road loss.

“When you play Minnesota, you can expect the ball to be run down your throat. But you expect that to be because of Adrian Peterson,” Bardeen said. “Then when a third-round draft pick (Jerick McKinnon) and a third-year vet who was an undrafted guy (Matt Asiata) can run roughshod over your defense like those two guys did, that’s a sign of serious problems with the run defense.”

The Falcons finished 2013 ranked 31stagainst the run and pushed to make upgrades, signing free agent nose tackle Paul Solilai and defensive end Tyson Jackson to five-year deals while also revising their scheme.

“You expected, with all those changes, for there to be improvement against the run,” Bardeen said. “But they’re actually worse this year.”

A lack of push at the line of scrimmage has been an issue. And a young and inexperienced linebacking corps has taken its lumps too. Sean Weathersppon was lost for the season with a ruptured Achilles tendon during the spring, forcing defensive coordinator Mike Nolan to turn to some of his younger players.

Rookie Prince Shembo, a former Notre Dame standout, is now in the starting lineup. And Paul Worrilow is a second-year linebacker, who was undrafted out of Delaware in 2013. Falcons coaches have credited Worrilow with a team-best 62 tackles. But that stat can be misleading.

“Sure, he’s a tackling machine,” Bardeen said. “But now he’s trying to figure out how to make tackles at a depth of 2 or 3 yards off the line of scrimmage instead of 5 or 6. That’s a big deal.”

Everything clicked that night and it was a glimpse into the team’s potential. Hester, of course, delivered several of the fireworks with a 20-yard rushing touchdown and a 62-yard punt return score. Jones also scored twice. Quarterback Matt Ryan (21-for-24, 286 yards, three TDs) posted a 155.9 rating and the Falcons were up by 56 points by the end of the third quarter.

“A phenomenal effort on offense,” Bardeen said.

The defense also recorded three sacks and five takeaways in that win, hitting quarterbacks Josh McCown and Mike Glennon seven other times.

“Seemed like a sign that this defense could put it all together,” Bardeen said. “But I guess that was just a one-time thing. Because they haven’t since.”

4. A couple of former Bears are helping to steady an injury-depleted and reshuffling offensive line.

Gabe Carimi, the Bears’ first-round pick in 2011, is in his first season with the Falcons and has been called on to wear many different hats in the early season. Carimi has made starts at right tackle and left tackle and was also forced to play both guard spots against the Vikings.

Meanwhile, Mike Tice, the Bears’ former line coach and offensive coordinator, is doing his best to stabilize things for a unit that has lost starting center Joe Hawley and right tackle Lamar Holmes for the season. Hawley suffered a torn ACL in Week 4 and Holmes went down with a foot injury in the same game. Justin Blalock also suffered a back injury in that loss and missed last week’s game but could return Sunday.

Carimi, meanwhile, is one of the Falcons’ pleasant surprises.

“I was down on him when he got here,” Bardeen said. “There just weren’t signs that he’d be able to rejuvenate a first-round draft pick kind of career. But he’s been a breath of fresh air. By no stretch of the imagination is he an All-Pro lineman. But he has really stepped in and done a terrific job.”